Wednesday, March 31, 2010

There have been a slew of news reports lately that Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros., the combo responsible for the current remake of Clash Of The Titans, will be producing a new Godzilla movie for release in 2012.

It's kind of funny to see this. It's part of a story I've been following for the past few years. A guy named Yoshimitsu Banno -- named in the story linked above as one of the film's producers -- has been making the rounds in the US entertainment industry trying to get a new Godzilla project off the ground since at least the late 90s. Banno is an intriguing character. He is the only person to have directed just one Godzilla movie (not including the last US-made catastrophe in 1998). Most Godzilla movie directors get asked back after they do one movie. Banno apparently made the execs at Toho so mad they never asked him back.

Banno's Godzilla movie was 1971's Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster, one of my personal all-time favorites of the series. It turns out that Banno didn't just pick a pollution-based monster as Godzilla's enemy because it was a trendy topic at the time. He was and is a big environmentalist. It has long been his dream to remake Godzilla vs The Smog Monster with a big budget as a way of calling attention to the serious environmental issues facing humanity today.

Apparently, Banno managed to purchase the rights to remake Smog Monster from Toho. But his efforts to get it going haven't been all that successful until now. Last I'd heard before this news came about was that he was trying to get a 15 minute Imax version made somewhere in South America. Or something like that...

ANYWAY, this all got me thinking that one of the FAQ's I get fairly often when I'm on tour from people who've read Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate is, "What the heck ever happened with your job at the Godzilla company?" (which was not the company that made Godzilla, but was a company founded by the guy who invented Godzilla)

I left that unresolved at the end of the book because at the time I finished writing the book it was unresolved. What ended up happening is that I got fired. That's in the book, I think.

But then in September of 2008 I went to Japan to lead the annual Dogen Sangha retreat and scheduled a meeting with the company while I was there. It was at this meeting that they proposed for me to come back to Japan and work for them again at the Tokyo office.

I really hemmed and hawed on this one. I desperately wanted to return to Japan. I feel more at home there than I do anywhere else. And yet returning to my old job sounded unappealing. Besides that, Zen Wrapped in Karma was set to be released in the Spring of the following year and I wouldn't be in America to promote it if I took the job in Japan.

At the end of 2008 I had to make my official decision. So I moved in to the San Francisco Zen Center for three weeks, finished off the book, then called up Tokyo and told them I was staying in America. I officially quit.

And that's the story!

Remember that this weekend I'll be in Brooklyn at the Zen Center there running a retreat. There's still space available. All info is on this link here.

Then it's on to Baltimore and following that, Richmond, Virginia. All info is on the link referenced above.

I read Mysterion’s @ 2:52 (pm) under the post before last and I commented at length, but then I noticed some things I might have overlooked may be unclear.

I can no way figure out what is meant by - “a two one dimensional world”.

Also - I can’t see how he got to 1.707.

If a “two one dimensional world” simply means a two dimensional world (Particularly ℂ - the complex plane) and you are talking of vector addition - you’d get a vector of the absolute value of 2.8284 (approx.) at an angle of 45°. You’d still be wrong. But I could see what you’re doing.

If you do intend to clarify it seems to me better to comment over there than over here.

So your idea is it doesn’t really matter if your an asshole [which is also of vital importance to human life - as Buddhist should recognize - but I don't mean it that way] or worthwhile in any way whatsoever?

You are, and at the same time you are not.

I don't think you get it.

Which means you are an intellectual.

(To some degree at least.)

And being a Christian does not mean one can not be a “regular”.

I know of three [- sorry if you can't figure out what that means, - there's one at least] who received the transmission.

But anyway - one merely needs to be willing to waste his time reading your stuff.

Anyway and however – it may be that we do go on fooling ourselves, but not in the way you intended.

R said: You can take all of the 10,000 worlds and fold them into your asshole for all I care. YOU are the one who does not get "it" -otherwise why do you spend so much time anal(!)yzing everything everyone says and being so contentious and confrontational about it? And continuing on and on with these endless, pointless rants? You, sir, to sum up, are a crashing bore.

Licking honey from a razor blade,Eyes of the learned gouged out by books, The beauty of maidens worn by display, The warrior dead from not knowing fear―It is ironical to see the dharma of samsara: Celebrities deafened by fame, The hand of the artist crippled by rheumatism.

The moth flew into the oil lamp, The blind man walks with a torch, The cripple runs in his wheelchair,A fool's rhetoric is deep and learned,The laughing poet has run out of breath and died.The religious spin circles, in accordance with religion;If they had not practiced their religion, they could not spin.The sinner cannot spin according to religion;He spins according to not knowing how to spin.The yogis spin by practicing yoga;If they don't have chakras to spin, they are not yogis.Chögyam is spinning, watching the spinning/samsara;If there is no samsara/spinning, there is no Chögyam.

Modular arithmetics does not actually mean that 2 and 2 can be anything other than 4.

Note my “I” @ 12:56 pm under the post before last.

You might even say that what we call “addition” in MA is not actually addition. [*]

One might define “addition” generally any way he likes. And as long as it might be useful for some purpose it might be done. It does not change the facts.

- Else, – you are saying “it hardly ever matters” and before that “there's always more than one way to look at something”.

The question is whether and to what extent “there's always more than one way to look at something”, - and to that 2 +2 serves as an example, for showing that the situation is not always as free as you describe, - (though one might negate the existence of all arithmetics in the first place) and for that it might matter.

M says: “Actually

2 + 2 can equal any number between 0 and 4, depending on context” (5:12 pm) but I see nothing to back it up.

[*] (Actually you couldn’t say otherwise. It’s a philosophical matter, not a mathematical one. There are clearer examples in mathematics. But it would be too complicated to present them here. (To be honest I can only think of one right now.)

And if you take M’s poem – it is only one reality.

- However deep or varied or wide the meaning may be.

- Since the translations can’t capture it there are many. - It’s due to the limitations of the translations.

- “2” have only one very strict meaning. If you’re using it another way it is just not 2. - It is not a matter of high mathematics. - It is very fundamental.)

It has no form, yet it is not formless. This is not saying that it is without any form, but that it is not the ordinary form. It is composed of neither ordinary, existing, nor non-existing forms. It is neither one definite form nor is it the many different forms. This is not saying that it has no definite form and that it is not in the many different forms. It is neither one nor many different forms. Generally speaking, as the world has many different notions, all false, we call this the Unreal Empty Form. But if false notions are given up, this is then the most Real.

damn, i remember how excited i was when they announced the 1998 remake and then showed a teaser of Godzilla coming out of the sea and fucking up NYC. then i saw it .. ack !!! hope they don't fuck this one up as well!!!

Bradyou are doing more sesshins than I recall your having done before.more than many head priests/abbots in a residential monastery/zen center/temple do1) how is that working out for you? Any observations?2) does it help that you aren't doing them all at one place, but have travel and vistas between them?3) which seems more like a dream? The sitting in stillness or the events occuring between the leaving (one center) and the arriving (at another center)?4)do you have an exercise program?

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I love watching Godzilla series. Especially the Godzilla Final Wars is an excellent one. It was a great fun watching that movies. I started collecting the Godzilla Toys after that. Actually am addicted to that.